This report was first published in Platform's carbon web newsletter, issue 1. On 10th November 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were executed by the Nigerian dictatorship following their campaign against the devastating environmental impacts of oil companies – including Shell and Chevron – in the Niger Delta. Ten years on and…
This report was first published in Platform’s Carbon web newletter, issue 1. As the G8 meeting has brought Africa and climate change to the fore, a report by Platform Research reveals that British development aid is being spent on oil projects that exacerbate both climate change and poverty. ‘Pumping Poverty’ details how the government’s…
Chapter for New Practices/New Pedagogies, emerging contexts, practices and pedagogies in art in Europe and North America, Ed. Malcolm Miles, Swets and Zeitlinger (ND) “It’s serious – it’s art, it’s politics, it’s economics, it’s everything, and art in that instance becomes so meaningful.” Ken Saro Wiwa 1 Since 1983, artist-led London-based group PLATFORM has been working…
“the writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.” Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) The Next Gulf – London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria. Written By: Andy Rowell, James…
‘Reflective, compassionate and creatively invigorating’ Time Out, Critic’s Choice. As part of the Living Memorial project, we commissioned a short film from artist filmmakers Judy Price and Andrew Conio to serve as an ‘exhibition’ of the five short listed proposals for the Living Memorial. The film is called Refining Memory. Refining Memory was premiered at the Museum…
“Artists should be at the centre of society keeping alive a utopian vision, because society will not improve if the people envisioning a better society are politicians.” Peter Sellars The role of the artist in society is critical to communicate the injustices experienced daily by people. Art provides political expression beyond rhetoric, propaganda, and action,…
Presented at "Artist as Educator", Ikon Gallery and University of Central England, May 2003 as part of Arts Council England's "Interrupt" Symposia. Republished: a-n Collections April 2007. “The process of social change is in desperate need of creativity and imagination, and the aesthetic process in urgent need of social engagement” (from Course Document for the MA…
This report examines the relationship between the oil and gas industry and the UK higher education sector, and assesses this in the context of climate change. It asks if some parts of the higher education sector have been ‘captured’by the industry. The report looks in detail at how much influence oil and gas companies have…
Some Common Concerns was written by PLATFORM and published with Corner House, Friends of the Earth & Kurdish Human Rights Project in October 2002. The book imagines what the proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system would be like if it were built. It recounts the 13 years of planning, the political positioning of the three host countries…
In Locality, Regeneration and Divers[c]ities, Eds Sarah Bennett and John Butler, Intellect Books, University of Plymouth In 1993, on the very outskirts of Budapest, Hungary, the ‘Statue Park Museum’ opened. It was born out of the idea of a literary historian who, four years earlier, had proposed that “all the various Lenin statues from all over…